Sunday, February 22, 2009

who cares?

mood: more bewilderment and head-shaking is the human brain big enough to save one of the most intelligent creatures? greenpeace asks cynically in an add, aiming at banning whaling amongst other ocean related concerns.

when i mention i'm vegetarian in restaurants, a frequent response is to point me in the direction of the fish...

greenpeace campaign

fact i: the ocean is humanities last frontier of ignorance

72% of earth's surface covered by sea

97% of the ocean is unexplored

with one yearly NASA budget, the exploration program of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) could be funded for 1600 years

largest mountain range covering 23% of earth's surface area underwater (visited for the 1st time after the moon in 1973)

coral reefs still unexplored between 60 and 150 meters

there are better maps of mars than the 50% of total US territory which lies under the sea

most of the southern hemisphere's underwater terrain is unexplored (more exploration ships in that region during captain cook's times than today)

the seabed is harboring countless well preserved archaeological artifacts

although most of the ocean does not get exposed to photons from the sun, and hence there is no photosynthesis, it is completely erroneous to not expect life

the antarctic sea is, unexpectedly and only recently discovered, teeming with marine life

hydrothermal vent systems are islands of life

bacteria replicating photosynthesis in the dark by chemosynthesis where accidental discovery as no one ever predicted their existence

resilient bacteria living in ph 11 environments

7 new species found per hour of deep reef exploration

2000 to 2500 estimated new species in the indo-pacific ocean alone (vs. 5000-6000 known species)

not only new species are still being discovered, but also new behavior and new ecology

amazing variety of bioluminescent animals

fact iii: the seas are being destroyed at breakneck speed

90% of all big fish have disappeared in the last 100 years

50% of all coral reefs are destroyed

for 1kg of fish ending up in a market, at least 10kg of bycatch was killed and thrown away

1.7% of the blue whale population is remaining

10% of the tuna fish population is remaining

commercial trawlers are forced to access ever deeper seabed due to the depletion of fisheries; this completely destroys potential habitats which are totally unexplored and eradicates possibly unknown species

throwaway plastic accumulating in the sea (half of the 100 billion pounds of plastic pellets a year are made into throwaway plastic produces of which a large fraction ends up in the sea)

The crust located beneath the ocean floor is the site of what could possibly be the Earth's largest biological reservoir, where scientists have discovered marine microbes thriving in harsh environments without any sunlight.

Scientists from the United Kingdom and 16 other nations have just returned from an expedition to explore a never-before-seen area of the ocean floor. Instead of the barren, sparsely inhabited environment some expected to see, scientists brought back pictures of a mysterious world that is teeming with life.

The most comprehensive list ever of species that live in the planet's oceans was released Monday, near the end of a worldwide, decade-long effort to catalog the denizens of the seas

"On average, across all these regions, experts estimated for every species on the list there are three, perhaps four they didn't have on the list," O'Dor told OurAmazingPlanet. "The magnitude of our ignorance is kind of shocking."

By examining centuries' worth of data, researchers showed the sea's inhabitants are dwindling. The study has named three main culprits behind the disappearance, chief among them widespread overfishing, which is removing entire species from the water. Second on the list was habitat loss due to everything from urbanization of coastlines and trawling of coral reefs to pollution — O'Dor cited the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as an example. Finally, temperature change also was listed as having an impact on the ocean environment.

But what scientists learned was more than a number or a count. It was a sense of how closely life connects from one place to another and one species to another.

"We didn't know so much about the deep sea...," Arbizu said. "We believe now that the deep sea is more connected, also the different oceans, than we previously thought."

The census found another more basic connection in the genetic blueprint of life. Just as chimps and humans share more than 95 percent of their DNA, the species of the oceans have most of their DNA in common, too.